Jeannette invites Mom and Dad to her new apartment, but Dad refuses to go, saying he would feel out of place. Mom comes immediately, however, and examines everything there for name and quality. When Jeannette tells her she wants to buy her and Dad something, like an apartment, Mom says no, that they don't need anything. She says she's more worried about Jeannette than Jeannette is about her. She insists that Jeannette has sold out to the establishment, and the next thing she knows Jeannette will become a Republican.
Jeannette's editor offers her a weekly column about what he calls the
behind-the-scenes doings of the movers and shakers. She jumps at it and
as a result, meets all kinds of new people. She loves this kind of writing,
because she wants to let the world know that no one has a perfect life
and yet she cannot brings herself to tell anyone the truth about her own
parents. She fears that if anyone knows she will lose her job. So she
avoids discussing them or outright lies about them.
It is hypocritical, but Jeannette's inability to tell the truth about
Rex and Rose Mary is understandable. They have forced her to live most
of her life in the worst of conditions because of their own selfishness.
Now that she has what she has always wanted, she doesn't want them to
mess it up as they have so many times before.
Jeannette and Eric begin a life of calm predictability, and four years after she moves into his apartment, they are married. Shortly after the wedding, Mom comes to Jeannette's apartment and tells her that Mom's brother, Jim, has died. Now she wants Jeannette to borrow money from Eric to buy Uncle Jim's share of the land in West Texas that their father had owned. Jeannette had known her mother owned the land, but had never seen it. Mom wants Jeannette to ask Eric for the money to the tune of a million dollars just so the land can stay in the family. Jeannette is appalled that this land is worth that much money, and that Mom's share would be worth just as much. However, Mom won't tell Jeannette how much her land is really worth.
Jeannette feels the need to know the value of the land because of all
the years of need. All those years in Welch with no food, no coal, no
plumbing, and Mom had been sitting on land worth a million dollars. However,
for the life of her, she cannot get Mom to tell her the value of the land
even though it's obvious that she knows and has kept it a secret all these
years. So she tells her mother that she can't ask Eric for that much money.
She asks Mom what she would do with the land, and Mom's answer is simply,
Keep it in the family. Jeannette tells Mom that she can't believe she's
asking her for this kind of favor. Mom's final comment is merely, Jeannette,
I'm deeply disappointed in you.
Mom's selfishness is once again the subject in this section. It is absolutely
unforgivable that this woman allowed her children to live in a perpetual
state of neglect for most of their lives while she had access to a million
dollars if she sold her land. The true character of the woman is revealed
in this very small section. Ironically, she claims disappointment in the
very daughter who was the one who kept the family together and healthy
when her mother either couldn't or wouldn't.
Lori is now working as a freelance artist, and Brian has become a police officer. Maureen graduates from high school and enrolls in a city college, but she never really applies herself and ends up living with Mom and Dad.
Maureen shows that she is the most fragile of all of the members of the family. She holds minor jobs from time to time, but they don't work out either. She has been looking all her life for someone to take care of her. She sometimes has boyfriends, but they don't work out either. So she ends up spending her days with Mom and Dad and becomes even more lost. She gets into terrible screaming matches with Dad until she ends up sleeping all day and not even reading. Jeannette persuades her to come to her apartment to talk about career possibilities, but Maureen says all she wants to do is help fight the Mormon cults that have kidnapped thousands of people in Utah. Now, Jeannette knows that Maureen is either on drugs or mentally ill. Brian just says, She's gone nuts. They try to get her help, but Mom won't do anything, and the professionals tell Jeannette that Maureen can only be put into a hospital on a court order.
Six months later, Maureen stabs Mom when Mom tells her she has to leave,
because it's too crowded in the squatter's apartment. Maureen cannot accept
the fact that her own mother would kick her out in the streets, and she
snaps. She is arrested, and at the arraignment, the whole family is there,
with Mom acting like her normal self - nonchalant in the face of adversity.
Bail is denied, and Dad gets into a loud argument in the hallway with
Lori about who is responsible for pushing Maureen over the edge. Then,
the entire family becomes enraged with each other, giving vent to all
the years of hurt and anger, unloading his or hurt accumulated grievances
and blaming the others for allowing the most fragile one of us to break
into pieces. Maureen is sent to an upstate hospital and then released
after a year. She promptly buys a oneway ticket to California. Jeannette
is worried, because Maureen knows no one there, but Brian believes that
it's the smartest thing she can do for herself. She needs to get as far
away from Mom and Dad, and probably the rest of them, as she can. Maureen
doesn't want anyone to see her off, but Jeannette awakens at the time
the younger girl will be leaving so she can say goodbye in her mind. She
feels guilty for allowing Maureen to come to New York and being too busy
taking care of herself to look after her little sister. Once again, she
thinks of the promise she had made to Maureen as she carried her home
from the hospital right after she was born, and says softly, I'm sorry,
Maureen, sorry for everything.
This is such a poignant section of the memoir. The collapse of Maureen, the horrible feelings they all have suppressed for so many years, especially towards their parents, and watching Maureen fall apart is obviously very difficult for Jeannette, but the deep feelings of guilt that she didn't do more to help her makes the sadness of Maureen's fall even more heart-wrenching.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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